Curiously, that is how it's usually worked in the smaller companies I've worked for over the years. There might have been some sort of external recruitment agen

Curiously, that is how it's usually worked in the smaller companies I've worked for over the years. There might have been some sort of external recruitment agency involved in some cases, but the in-house people driving the process were always people like team leaders or department heads where the new recruit would be working, and typically the CVs were triaged or reviewed by a couple of other senior people within those teams or departments. I've never applied to a very large company via the equivalent process myself, only wound up in them through other means. However, seeing from inside how things have sometimes been handled, with HR/legal driving the process and technical people taking a back seat, I can't say I'm regretting my life choices here. :-)